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Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner doing two new issues of Renee Montoya as the question as part of DC's Convergence event. Details are here.

Also, Gail Simone and Jan Duursema doing an Oracle and Nightwing Story. A Stephanie Brown Batgirl story. A Wally West story. A Ryan Choi story. Even Damian's back in a Batman and Robin story.

Looking forward to seeing Renee again.

So Double Dare, a 2005 documentary that follows two stuntwomen is up on Hulu. One is Zoe Bell, who worked on Xena. And the other is Jeannie Epper, who worked on Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman show.

Just saw the trailer for this documentary, She Makes Comics, which I hadn't heard of before. Seems to have had a successful kickstarter campaign.

Here's the trailer.

Here's a cool little montage pulled together from the footage.

Some big names in there, it looks like.

Enhanced edition on sale now.

I guess this is primarily a roleplaying question, about character backstories and how they're incorporated into your at-table play.

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post, or if it should be separate from the "Homosexuality in Golarion" thread (since that's kind of an all-purpose LGBT thread). Mods can feel free to move it if they think they should.

I was thinking about Shardra the other day, and I was wondering, for people who have played transgender PCs, how have you gone about it?

By which I mean things like: How is it incorporated into your character's backstory? Is it something that comes up in play? Does the GM know? Do the other players or PCs know? Did your character transition before they began adventuring? Did they come to the realization before or after they began adventuring? Is getting enough money together to get the necessary potion/elixir/girdle/ring/what-have-you part of a roleplaying arc you've created for your character? Is there any way you tie all of this into Golarion lore (e.g. Kittyburger's idea of referring to trans people in-setting as Arshean)? And so on.

Any thoughts? Just curious what approaches people have taken, on the (I'm guessing) rare occasions they've played a trans character.

A 10-minute, low budget horror short by Australian director, Jennifer Kent, called The Monster. Pretty effective in a short amount of time.

Seems like a dry run for her upcoming feature, The Babadook, due out in November. (I'd guess the feature film goes in a different direction than the short.)

The ever-reliable Noel Murray, one of the critics at The Dissolve (and formerly of The AV Club), called The Babadook one of the best films he saw at Sundance this year.. He also said:

On an intellectual level, I could tell you that what makes The Babadook so brilliant is how it ties its scares to something real, and more deeply frightening than any boogeyman: namely the loss of a spouse, and the fear that an unusual child will become a lifelong burden. But none of that would matter (much) if The Babadook didn’t work so well on a visceral level. Simply put: This movie is absolutely terrifying...

Anyways, the short film seems to work pretty well, IMHO. Worth 10 minutes of your time.

If you get a chance to see Richard Linklater's new film, Boyhood, I'd recommend giving it a go. Easily the best film I've seen all year, and the best film I expect to see this year.

For those not familiar with the film, Linklater started filming it with his cast in 2002. They'd film some scenes, stop, reconvene a year later, film some more, stop, reconvene a year later, etc. It follows the life of a boy in Texas from the ages of 6 to 18, using the same actor for the boy during the entire period.

It's really something to see. Also has good performances by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as the boy's parents.

Trailer is available here.

It's a wonderful film.

Studio Ghibli has made their last film.

So Studio Ghibli will now focus on not making new films but rather on managing its copyrights and trademarks and generating revenue from its library of previous creations. In 2010, Miyazaki acknowledged that there was a potential future for the studio in such a form, telling Cut Magazine, "Ghibli should be able to continue with about five staff members as a copyright management company even if we smash the studio. So, Ghibli can say 'We stop film production. Goodbye.' I do not have to be there."

Details here.

Trailer for their final film, When Marnie Was There is here.

There's one other film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, that was released in Japan earlier this year and hasn't made it over to the US yet.

The first issue of the new Ms. Marvel is out, and it's great. Written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Adrian Alphona (from Runaways).

Here's a sketch by Alfona of some of the main cast. And a NY Times article on the comic, from back when it was first announced.

This was, for me, one of the better comics Marvel's put out in the past few years. Worth a look, if you've got $3 to spare.